ReadWriteWeb

Jay Lyman, senior analyst for the 451 Group, spoke at LinuxCon North America 2011 on the changing Linux landscape. Sessions are short at LinuxCon – about 50 minutes in total, give or take. So there's not a lot of time to get deep into the nitty gritty and perform a detailed analysis or explanation of a market that's now nearly 20 years old. Lyman went through a brief discussion of the major players in the market, and touched on the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) for each.

How do you make money if you give your software away for free? That's the classic question asked of Open Source software vendors and the expected reply is that they charge customers for software customization and support. That's not the way it works anymore, though, according to a report published today by analyst firm The 451 Group.

Titled "Open source is not a business model," the report challenges some long held beliefs about the technology business. Not everyone is happy with the 451 Group's conclusions, either.